We had been looking for some nice splash-back tiles for the cooker and the sink for some time now. We found a really nice hand-made tile firm in Sussex that makes Delft style tiles. These wouldn’t exactly fit with the Transylvanian style of the rest of the house, would need transporting to Romania, and because they were also over £10 a tile, it was probably sensible to look elsewhere. Instead, we wondered whether we could put soba tiles on the wall.

We looked around and finally came across a wonderful soba tile maker from Cisnădioara: Michael Henning. Michael is a Saxon and makes soba tiles in the traditional styles of Saxon sobas or Kachelöfen, as they are known in German. (if you are interested in asking Michael to make you some soba tiles, his email address is henningmbg@clicknet.ro, phone number 0040-269-561-646). There is a firm in Mediaş which also makes Saxon soba tiles, but we were impressed with the quality of Michael’s tiles and were happier to be buying tiles from the person who would make them. We liked the tiles so much that we have decided to ask Michael to make us a full set of soba tiles for our house in Biertan. Having a Saxon make our soba tiles for our Saxon houses seemed more authentic as well - and our approach all the way through has been to try to retain many of the original elements of these houses.